Space dragon story (writer newby)

[Dragon of the void]

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Draco Prime, stardate 2401.3

This is TVFF, reporting about the disaster that has happened in Trival system yesterday. Egg Kreesh has been destroyed by a so far unknown race. They seem to have developed spacetravel similar to the capabilities of the dragons. Why this species has attacked us is not known so far. There was no communication prior to the attack. As of today, we are at war with an enemy we have no information at all about.
Stay tuned for the translated speech of the dragons’ head.

"Have we done the wrong thing ? Should we have kept to our lives in harmony with the sun, our sun ? Should we stay away from learning new things ? Have we been punished for wanting too much ?
I believe not. We share the grief over the lost egg, and we share the anger. Anger, because this tragedy should have been avoided ! We are looking for someone to blame for the loss of an unhatched mother, not to forget the millions of little ones that accompanied her on her way.
But this anger must not deter us from our goal. We have gathered, and are of one mind. We will push for the new stars. Even as we speak, mothers in 13 sectors of space are landing on habitable planets that are almost exactly the same as our homeworlds. Our little ones swarm out of their protective shells, and explore new worlds, and a new freedom. The wonders we have uncovered are beyond count, and value.
What will we do to prevent a repetition ?
As we speak, two hatchling brothers have separated themselves from the surfaces of Draco I and II, and are heading for space to deal with this thread. I was linked with the killed mother in her Last minutes, and I can assure you that the strange “brother” that attacked us Last month will be no match for them.
We all would have liked to learn in peace from any species we find out there, but there was not even the least attempt to communicate, just a barrage of light waves right from the start ! So as of today, we have committed ourselves, and the work of all our little ones, to the destruction of the aggressive species, codenamed “Terran”, by the interpretation of their curious body-painting."

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On board of the “Jupiter”, Terran exploration vessel in Rigel system, stardate 2401.3

“Ok, Doc. Now tell me why the heck human bodies spill out of an asteroid without us detecting any livesigns at all. Was this some kind of space-graveyard for a species we have not yet discovered, or what ?”

“Captain Hunter, I do not know what we have here. This is making no sense to me. Analysis shows that the bodies not only are clearly human, but also that they were in some kind of stasis only minutes before the attack.”

“Are you telling me that we destroyed an ancient colonizer ? That at a time before the great war technology was so high developed that they actually sent out a vessel ?”

“No. The vessel itself was clearly not of human technology. We have found no trace of a communication system whatsoever. Also the energy control used by the stasis fields and the propulsion are way beyond our capabilities today, not to speak of the time before the war. It seems more like a exposition of human bodies, made by aliens.”

“So we found an alien museum of the human race filled with abducted people. Maybe better that we destroyed it. I will contact the prime minister at once that we have to prepare for defense.”

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From the history books of the “Watchers”, stardate 3782.8

Maybe one of the most interesting species we discovered in all our travels, the space dragons are in a state of constant development. Their species is divided in female “mothers” and male “brothers”.
The “mothers” hatch from an egg that is launched into space by another mother. When this egg crashes on a suitable planet, the surviving body cells begin to grow and absorb gigantic amounts of minerals, in time enveloping the whole planet. There are even some reports that a few eggs hatched in space around their home world, but this was very rare. It is proven that the capability to give birth to others of their species is much reduced in the spaceborn variety (about 40%). Rumors that there are even some of this spaceborn mothers capable of independent spaceflight after they have hatched are not proven.
The brothers on the other hand are always able to move free throughout space, although they like to be connected to a "mother", and have to be "launched"/birthed with great effort. They undergo several stages in their lives:
The male hatchling is able to move at reasonable speed, but can defend himself from various dangers only by spitting a slug of condensed matter, often uranium or similar material, at his foe. When he grows into a juvenile dragon, he learns how to manipulate defensive fields, up to the point where energy from the heart of the dragon is focused at an attacker, almost identical to an Anti-Proton Beam. Once the dragon masters this focus completely, we speak of a grown-up. Most brothers register about 400 kT, but evidence suggests there are bigger ones, also.
Their relation to the human race is symbiotic in nature. Dragons as a mineralic lifeform cannot perform several actions that their curiosity drives them to. In exchange, they protect and feed the humans they control, giving them a life without sorrow. Some byproducts of the female dragon’s digestion system are highly addictive to humans, so there seems to be no discomfort for lack of freedom.
In the humans’ great civil war of 2204, a group of male dragons took secretly several humans with them, to protect them from harm. This people flourished on the dragons’ homeworlds, and eventually exceeded the population they came from in numbers.

What we today know as the “reunion wars” (2401-2405) between dragons and humans was a misunderstanding. The humans mistook the “eggs” and “brothers” as asteroids and later as hostile battleships. The dragons, being able to communicate telepathically between themselves, mistook the first human spacevessels as living “brothers”. The dragons never thought that free humans could develop spaceflight with artificial means, believing that all humans not permanently controlled would eventually kill themselves once again in a big civil war.

[Dragon of the void]

Sorry for all the typos (english is not my first language).

Please tell me if you like the story, even if it is clearly not as good as some others I have read here in this forum.

To use the transition of "starship trooper":

"Do you wnat to know more ?"

[sachmo]

Very imaginative story! I'm definately enjoying it...and don't worry about the typos or grammer too much! I would definately like to read more.

[dogscoff]

Nice idea. I like idea of symbiotic races being at war. There's potential for some really interesting conflicts and dilemas.

[Andrés]

This reminds me of my half-made Dragon shipset. Another of my many projects I haven't touched for months.

[Dragon of the void]

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Bulletin to his enlightened Emperor, Rafzik the 57th, Golana II, stardate 2463.7

As always humbled by the foresight of our emperor, it is my great pleasure to report my mission to gather information about the spacefaring race called the “space dragons” an outstanding success.

Fully cloaked by the newest invention of the imperial shipyards, we could evade detection by the dragons and intercept their news broadcasts while in orbit of a planet called Jolantha VII for almost one year. These news seem to be directed at their slave races, in this case beings that call themselves “humans”.

We could not find out what the dragons hold this humans for, since there seem to be no labour camps, no detention centres or anything else normally associated with slavery. But there seems to be a curious connection between the size of a global “crust”, growing on any planet protected by the space dragons, and the slave population on this planet. Our first assumption that this “crust” is build artificially by the slaves was not correct. It grows. But on some planets that are under the influence of the dragons for a long time the crust is still relatively small (as is the slave population), and on other planets (with high population) the growth rate is incredibly fast. This crust is impenetrable by sensors, but seems to cover their mining facilities and the housing areas of the slaves. What we could learn from the transmission the slave population as well as dragons on planet or in space idolize their planet as “mother”, as if it was a being of independent thought. We have seen this cult in numerous primitive societies, but never with races so technologically advanced.

The dragons are very open about any military information in their news (the main reason for this report). Given the nature of their slave-slaver relationship to the humans, this seems very curious. Independent observation could confirm mayor parts of these news, so it seems genuine.

The dragon “military” consists of the complete population of spacefaring dragons. Any dragon has at least the offensive capability of a “Hunting bird”-class imperial escort, while surpassing this vessel in size by a factor of 3. Inside of each dragon, there is an organic live support area for slaves, but they have no combat value whatsoever. Their function on board is also still unclear. Apart from these similarities, there are several classes/varieties of dragons, named after the elements most intelligent species have used in their first attempt to science:
Fire, Water, Earth and Wind, colour coded, red, blue, green and white.

Fire dragons number surprisingly few when compared to the threat the space dragons pose to their opponents. They are the main mobile fighting force. It is very interesting to know that while they seem to be able to replicate the effects of almost any direct fire weapon, like ballistic cannons and beam weaponry, they completely ignore guided missiles or fighter craft. Although they clearly have great knowledge of the manipulation of organisms and crystals to suit their needs, they do not use organic or crystalline weapons as do other races. Their lack of communication in combat seems to indicate that they are psychic, but this, also, is never used offensively. But they are far from harmless. We have witnessed a minor skirmish with the Karuik, a minor race in the Hoplit-quadrant, and the dragons use their weaponry to the most deadly effect. They seem to hit their target even under the most adverse circumstances.
Rough estimating there are no more than 50 such space dragons, meaning only 50% of the complete population are ideally fitted for combat. What makes counting them very frustrating is their ability to completely change their appearance AND ability (with the help of the “water” dragons).
Their shape is adapted to the needs of combat, with large “wings” to dissipate heat and a compact body that houses all the vital parts. The name “space dragon” was clearly used with this variety in mind.

Water dragons are seen with any mayor gathering of red (fire) dragons. The best description we can give is they are the “medics” of the dragons. Their function comes close to our supply and maintenance corps, keeping the fighting force in perfect condition. Changing the shape seems to be a very strength-consuming effort, so almost no other dragon does so if no water dragon is near.
Their shape (if you can call it so) is that of a nebula, with only few dense mater. It is impossible to count them exactly, since we do not know if what we see is one big nebula or several smaller ones.

Earth dragons are similar to the “fire” variety, with the exception that they completely lack the ability to move on their own. Both on the surface of planets and in orbit or free space, they trade manoeuvrability for additional firepower. We can not preclude that they may be able to change into a moving variety, but strong indicators suggest that they either are not able or unwilling to do so. We are trying to confirm a thesis right now that defines them as dragons at the end of their life cycle (with the difficulties from constant change of individuals already mentioned).
They also resemble the fire dragons in shape if alone, with the habit of connecting into larger snowflake-like structures when close together. This makes them hard to count correctly, too.

Wind dragons are the least militaristic branch of the dragons. It is unlikely that they ever participate in any battle. They seem to transport population, resources, their “earth” brethren or troops of their slave races around. Since the dragons have a strong aVersion against ground combat (are they not trusting their slaves to perform well ?), troops are only used as peacekeeping forces when the battle is already over.
They look more like big fish than anything else. Although as able to change their shape as all other dragons, they seldom do. We estimate there are no more than 20 of this subspecies.

All this was confirmed by their own media reports, observations over the period of 1 year, and the interrogation of several captured slaves from Jolantha VII.

However, what is still a mystery to us is a very rare mentioned fifth variety of dragon:
We only know what these “black” dragons are NOT:
They have no military function whatsoever. Not once have we been able to see one of those. While the location of various other dragons, including strategically important ones, are openly transmitted by the news, the whereabouts of these black dragons are neither mentioned in the news nor known to our interrogated captives.
We first thought they were the immaterial “gods” of the dragons, but they are never revered. If anything fills that role, the “mother” comes close.
They are not the commanders, since every fleet of red dragons is almost independent from each other, and no overall high command is recognizable.
To sum it up, we do not know what this subspecies does. If the emperor will excuse this little yoke, we have a funny theory:

Maybe they are the storytellers ?

[Dragon of the void]

What I plan next is a much longer story about Dieter, one of the "dragonriders", starting 2401.4

He will bond with the red dragon K'rk, eventually befriending him, fight/observe many battles in space, discover the forgotten origins of his people and many secrets about the dragons. Finally he will have to choose between his home where he is treated as an outsider, and a "free" society he does not understand completely.

Actually, the first chapter was finished before the "bulletin", but I am not yet sure whether I should write such a long story in english, and not in german, or at all ...

But I have fun writing, so why not ? *g*

[dogscoff]

I hope you do continue this story. now that you have described all the necessary political and biological background, I'm eager to see a plot built around it.